A spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League, nevertheless, dismissed such criticism in a press release to The Washington Submit on Thursday: “All through historical past, Jews have been usually portrayed in antisemitic movies and propaganda as evil caricatures with massive, hooked noses. This movie, which is a biopic on the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, is just not that.”
Different teams, such because the nonprofit StopAntisemitism, have criticized the choice to solid Cooper as a substitute of a Jewish actor — a observe some critics name Hollywood’s “Jewface” downside.
Selection documented a protracted checklist of non-Jewish actors portraying Jews lately, together with Felicity Jones as Supreme Court docket Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a 2018 biopic and Helen Mirren as former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir within the upcoming “Golda.”
The Hollywood Reporter wrote in 2018 that Jake Gyllenhaal, whose mom is Jewish, had deliberate to painting Bernstein in a rival biopic earlier than the composer’s property granted unique music rights to “Maestro,” which Cooper directed and co-produced with Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.
“That concept of taking part in one of the crucial preeminent Jewish artists in America and his wrestle along with his id was in my coronary heart for 20 some odd years, however typically these issues don’t work out,” Gyllenhaal later told Deadline, and wished Cooper’s crew one of the best with their venture.
A broader debate about authenticity in Hollywood has been raging for years, with scrutiny on White actors portraying Latinos (see James Franco as Fidel Castro), lighter-skinned actors taking part in darker-skinned characters (see the live-action remake of “Lilo and Sew”) and vestiges of overtly racist blackface performances from Hollywood’s previous. Earlier than happening strike, Rolling Stone reported, leaders of a big actors union have been working with studios to ban the observe of “portray down” and “wigging” White stunt doubles to seem Black.
“I’ve talked about authenticity casting not making use of to Jews — and what meaning — many occasions,” British comic David Baddiel, wrote this week on X, previously often called Twitter. “The one distinction right here is it’s extra — effectively — on the nostril.”
“Maestro” has distinguished defenders in Jamie, Alexander and Nina Bernstein, who said in a joint assertion on X that Cooper consulted with them about portraying their father, who died at age 72 in 1990 as one of the crucial well-known American conductors in historical past.
“It breaks our hearts to see any misrepresentations or misunderstandings of his efforts,” they wrote within the publish, including that their father “had a pleasant, massive nostril.”
“Bradley selected to make use of make-up to amplify his resemblance, and we’re completely tremendous with that. We’re additionally sure that our dad would have been tremendous with it as effectively,” they wrote. “Any strident complaints round this subject strike us above all as disingenuous makes an attempt to deliver a profitable particular person down a notch — a observe we noticed all too usually perpetrated on our personal father.”
Sarah Silverman, who helped popularize the time period “Jewface” two years in the past when she criticized a deliberate miniseries for casting a non-Jewish actress as comic Joan Rivers, will play Bernstein’s sister Shirley Bernstein in “Maestro,” which is slated to hit film theaters Nov. 22 and Netflix on Dec. 20.
Silverman didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.